A. decus-silvae question

flycatchersAugust 4, 2008

Hi

I was wondering if someone could advise me. I have grown a A. decus-silvae from seed since 2004. Until now it has always replaced a leaf with a new one before the old one died off. I guess as it is getting older this growth habit is now stopping. When the most recent leaf died off some months ago I checked the top of the tuber and saw a small growing point. So I left it undisturbed. Gradually a new leaf developed but them stopped growing. After checking to see if there were any roots (there weren't) I decided to remove the tuber, check it and repot in fresh compost. This is what it looked like them 1 July;

I repotted it and also covered the pot to increase the humidity as I have found in the past this has encouraged new growth. The leaf did grow a small amount but them went a bit mouldy and started to die off. I removed the outside layer of the growing point carefully and it still looked ok underneath. But nevertheless the point died off and came awy from the tuber. By this time I had removed the cover to the pot.

The bulk of the tuber still looks and feels ok, though the top where the growing point was looks a bit less happy!

As I have lost tubers earlier when I lost the growing point I was wondering what to do for the best? Repot and cover the top of the tuber, or leave it exposed? And increase the humidity or perhaps not! What do you think are its chances?

My titan is currently send up its new leaf. I grow both plants sidebyside in my sitting room. They are on the windowsill sitting on a heat pad. I am in the UK

I lost a gigas when the growing tip rotted . The tuber persisted for a long time , but eventually rotted away .
The replacememnt I bought and planted out shot several new shoots that all got burnt off , but it now has a new leaf that has grown all winter in the full sun . I have planted several Coleus around the base to shelter the new shoot . I have found that the Borneo species will usually die down here in late spring or early summer . I hope the tuber has increased in size enough to give me a decent sized plant next year . I will be buying a few more , and hope to have a little colony of them and produce some seeds here in Australia. I have not tried decus-silvae but they are easily available here .
Try repotting in very coarse free draining media , and keep your fingers crossed.